One of the questions that soccer enthusiasts ask themselves is whether juggling a soccer ball is important or helpful at all. If you love the sport of have some knowledge about it, you’ll bear me witness that it requires a lot of skills for one to become a professional. These skills are diverse and require a considerable amount of effort for one to master them effectively. Juggling happens to be one of these much-needed skills that professional soccer players should possess. Juggling a soccer ball has been a popular trend in the soccer world.
So, is juggling a soccer ball important or helpful at all? Quite frankly, juggling a soccer ball is very important and helpful for every player. If you want to go to the highest levels of this sport as a professional, you have to grow the desire for juggling. It’s one of those things a soccer player can assume or ignore.
Well, just like any skill, juggling requires time and effort for you to develop. For you to be at your optimum best as a soccer player, you have to invest in juggling. You can be sure that it’s not an exercise in futility. In fact, there are multiple benefits of learning how to juggle a soccer ball as you will see below.
Improving Aerial Control
Aerial control is a good technique for a soccer player. While controlling the ball on the ground seems quite an easy task, it isn’t the same for controlling it when it’s on the air. If you ask any professional player out there, they will tell you that one of the hardest things in play is to control a soccer ball when it’s on the air, especially during a competitive match. It’s for this reason that juggling plays an important role in developing aerial control. One thing you have to know is that the moment the ball is on the air, it’s a whole different scenario. You have to know how to control it in a way that you won’t lose it to your opponent or misdirect your play.
Did you know that one of the things that coaches and technical directors of soccer clubs check when doing trials for new players is their technique in aerial control? If they aren’t good in this area, chances are high that they may not be selected into the team. If you want to become a professional soccer player, you have to learn how to juggle a ball to develop your aerial control ability.
Perhaps, you’re saying that you like playing on the ground or your coach insists on playing some great touches on the ground. Whereas this might be something to consider, the truth of the matter is that you can’t always keep the ball on the ground. You just can’t dictate how the other team is going to play. Now this is where juggling comes in. If you’re a good juggler, you’ll not be afraid of controlling especially when you’re picking the ball of a corner or a free kick.
Confidence Booster
Believe it or not, confidence is such a major component of success in soccer like it is for other things in life. If you happen to lack confidence, you’ll not be able to accomplish much. While you’ll want to succeed, you’ll keep on falling back. There’s nothing as distressful as a player who lacks confidence while on the field. You’ll always let your teammates down.
For you to take care of lack of confidence, you can work on the skill of juggling. Not many people know how to juggle, and many who know how to confess to not being as good as they should. So, if you can develop this skill and work on it to the fullest, you’ll be doing yourself a huge favor. You’ll not only be proud of being a great juggler, but you’ll also gain the much-needed confidence to play competitive soccer. Coaches love to work with players who have a massive amount of confidence.
Soccer players who can juggle the ball will always be ahead of others. One thing that you have to put in mind is that soccer is very competitive and if you can’t rise to that level of competitiveness, you’ll end up being left behind. Once a player falls out of favor, the aspect that suffers the most is confidence. As you already know, without a significant amount of confidence, you’ll find it difficult to perform at the highest level of this sport.
Lastly, if you’re good in juggling a soccer ball, you’ll be in a position to be creative. Creativity counts a lot when it comes to soccer. If you take a keen look at the most decorated soccer players in the world, you’ll realize that what sets them apart from other players is their level of creativity. What do you think makes a player to be massively creative? Without a doubt, it’s their ability to juggle the ball.
Players who can juggle the ball are able to trick their opponents and create spaces where it’s seems difficult. Particularly for a midfield player, juggling creates the much-needed confidence to go past opponent players and create chances for teammate. If juggling boosts confidence and paves way for creativity, then it’s something that carries a great deal of significance for soccer players.
Boosting Your Ability to Concentrate
Concentration is valuable for a player. If you can develop the capacity to concentrate in a soccer match, you’ll be a highly dependable player. If you have to get good and quality results when you’re on the field as a player, it’s a must for you to know how to concentrate. Full focus during a soccer match goes a long way to guarantee you of a win. But, the big question is how is this concentration realized?
Whereas there might be other ways of developing concentration as a player, juggling is one of the sure ways that you can rely on to ensure that you’re a fully focused player on the pitch. When you’re just beginning to practice juggling, it’s often difficult for you to do so without dropping the ball. What do you think is the reason for this? Normally, it’s because it’s not easy to maintain concentration when you’re just starting out on the juggling journey. However, all you need to do to develop the confidence to concentrate more is to practice on a daily basis or often until you’re confident enough to focus for a longer duration.
A match takes a total of 90 minutes. So, if you’re going to concentrate for the full minutes, it’s important for you to take dribbling seriously. If you’ve ever played for such a long duration of time, then you know that it’s not easy maintaining concentration, considering that you’ll get tired as the game proceeds. For this reason, you should begin to juggle a soccer ball to help you learn how to concentrate more as a player.
Improving Timing and Body Control
As you already know, playing the world’s most popular sport isn’t about hitting the ball around a playground. It’s about knowing how to use your body well and knowing when to execute your touches. This might seem like a very complicated thing, but it’s possible if you learn how to juggle a soccer ball. If you’re keen with players, especially those who play upfront as strikers, you must have noted that they don’t just hit the ball anyhow. They know how to not only control their bodies, but also how to time their touches in a perfect way.
This is only possible if you’re able to juggle a soccer ball with ease. The truth of the matter is that it’s not easy to learn the skill of juggling. For you to be in a position to improve your timing and control your body effectively while in play, you must have practiced juggling for some time. Essentially, when you’re juggling, you have to know how to time your touches so that you keep the ball perfectly in the air. This is how you will be in a perfect position to maintain quality touches.
Improving Your Balance as a Player
For you to learn how to improve your balance as a player, you have to do a few things consistently, and one of those things is juggling. If you are able to maintain the right balance as a player, you’ll not only enjoy playing soccer, but you’ll set yourself apart as a professional able to play at the highest level possible. Every soccer player, regardless of your level, you have to learn to maintain the right balance. Of course, this doesn’t come at a sudden flight. You have to learn how to juggle and maintain a daily practice until you become good at it.
There are certain scenarios that justify why balance is pivotal for soccer players. To begin with, you should be able to change direction as quickly as possible as a soccer player. Again, you should be able to keep possession of the ball even when a defender is putting a heavy amount of pressure on you. Similarly, you need the right amount of balance for you to shoot a ball when you’re high speed. For you to maintain this amount of balance, it will be a great idea for you to learn how to juggle a soccer ball.
If you’re a young player, for example, you have to develop a great amount of balance for you to fit into a squad. If you’re able to control the ball with your feet, this is a great indication that you will have great results in the future as a player. The best soccer players are those who are able to develop control in such a way that they can pull a move even in the trickiest position. Again, juggling is good because it helps to develop the ability to make fast adjustments and direction change seamlessly. Players who have learned the skill of juggling from the left to the right side are able to control the ball better than those who don’t.
Therefore, if you’ll want your balance to be on point, you have to invest in juggling. It will require effort for you to develop such a skill. It won’t come in a day or two. But if you consistently juggle your ball, you’ll definitely improve your balance.
Developing the Fine Touch
Players with a fine touch are those that are able to control the ball in a quick and seamless way. This is a skill that most players take time to develop. The good news is that they can improve the ability to have good touches on the ball by being good jugglers. As you play, you will often be required to make some good touches but it might prove difficult. The reason as to why it’s hard to do so is because you’re not good at juggling the ball.
There are times when you’ll get a tricky pass from your teammate. Also, you might get an aerial ball from your goalkeeper and you need to make a fine pass in the midst of your opponent’s defenders. Irrespective of the situation, you have to learn how to make the right touch. The way to build this ability is through juggling on a regular basis.
The truth of the matter is that you’ll not find yourself juggling the ball around the field during a football match, but the skill will come in handy in helping you to make the right touches at the right time. Let’s say for example, you receive a ball at an angle which you aren’t used to. The only way you’ll be able to control it with a fine touch is if you’re able to juggle the ball with confidence.
Practicing the skill of juggling enables you to be in a position to perfect your touch in a way that you’re able to control the ball regardless of the situation or height. For example, when you’re dribbling, juggling helps you to know the amount of weight that you should add to your ball so that you make the best pass possible. Generally, if you want to improve your ability to make good touches, you have to maintain a habit of juggling regularly until you’re able to make those fine touches without difficult.
Working on your Leg Strength
As a player, you need your legs to have strength that can sustain a play. Just like you need concentration for you to be an effective player, you need your legs to have the power to dribble and kick the ball from one side of the pitch to other. Certainly, this will not come easily. It takes effort and time to have your legs developing the much-needed strength to play at your optimum best. What you might not know is that most soccer players have only one dominant leg for playing.
It can either be the right or the left. Very few players use their both legs to play soccer. Imagine having to use only one leg effectively for an entire match. This isn’t easy right? The good news is that it’s possible for you to work on your leg so that you can develop the strength needed to rise up to be a great player.
Juggling helps you to learn how to use one leg and give it the stamina required performing at its best. You will need to balance your legs and body as you play. Of more importance still, you’ll need to position yourself in angles that might put stress on your leg. For you to give your leg the endurance it needs, it needs to get used to juggling. With this, you will give your leg the support it needs to stay in power for a long time.
Improving Motivation
Just to reiterate, playing soccer isn’t easy. Besides the competition that exists between players, it’s a sport that requires a high amount of determination and motivation to succeed. The level of skill required and practice isn’t a straight line. Nevertheless, there is a sure way you can use to develop motivation as a player. Juggling goes a long way in helping a player to develop determination to win.
If you’re in a winning team, you have to develop a winning mentality, and this you can develop through regular juggling sessions. As you set small and big goals in your juggling sessions, you’ll find that you’ll be in a position to stretch yourself to limits you never though you could. It’s out of this that you’ll be building the motivation and determination that every soccer player needs to grow in expertise.
Developing Flexibility
You need to be flexible as a player. Rigidity is not a good trait for any player, regardless of the sport. Therefore, if you develop a habit of juggling a soccer ball often, you will end up becoming more flexible. This is an important and helpful trait for every player with the passion to play at the highest level possible.
Now that you’ve known how imperative and helpful juggling a soccer ball is, you have to practice it regularly for you to be at your maximum best. Wherever you feel comfortable doing the juggle, go for it and develop the professional and skillful player in you.